how would you rate president obama's past state-of-the-union speeches? >> i think that one of the most important ways to have a successful state-of-the-union speech is to surprise us a little bit with a new policy or a new argument. some of the speeches he's given have not done that. but i think his inaugural address this past term was powerful. surprising. and so maybe that suggests a newboldness in his second term. >> but how about the rhetoric used if you will? i've heard it said that you wish the president would be a little less stiff with his prose, invoke a little more poetry into his speeches, as he did in this inaugural address. do you think he will do that in this state-of-the-union? is that the place to do it? >> well, look, any state of the union is something of an eloquent laundry list if you're lucky. there's a lot that goes into it. i'm less worried about the poetry and the words -- his speech writers used to talk about don't write to have words chiseled on the wall of the presidential library. i want to know what the ideas are. they should